Australia's Pat Cummins. (AP) Former England captains Michael Atherton and Michael Vaughan has called the Australian cricket team lucky as rain helped them to retain the Ashes and added the Pat Cummins-led side looked scared, rattled and petrified in the fourth Test at Old Trafford.
The fifth-day washout handed the urn to Australia as the most pessimistic forecasts came to pass and relentless rain meant the players never made it to the middle in a miserable weekend for England.
“Rarely have Australia been so outplayed as they were over the first three days of this game, and England’s brilliant and bold cricket deserved a more just outcome,” Michael Atherton wrote in the Times.
“Not since Ian Botham at his peak in the 1980s has an Australian team looked as rattled as they did in the field here.”
Michael Vaughan also echoed Atherton’s view saying it was a lucky escape for the visitors.
“Australia were timid, scared and petrified of this England team all week in Manchester and played for rain. Australia were rattled: I can’t remember saying that before. They will know that only rain saved them. It ranks as one of the luckiest escapes I can remember,” Vaughan wrote in the Telegraph.
“If England play anything like this again, they will win at the Oval and level the series. They will not have retained the Ashes, but might just have been the better team across the series.”
Vaughan also added that England will paid the price for mistakes in the first two Tests.
“But they can have no complaints about Australia retaining the Ashes, and this series not getting the grandstand finish it deserved at the Oval,” he wrote.
“England completely dismantled Australia to a point where they were unable to deliver the basics.
“They were psychologically affected by the Bazball juggernaut. Australia forgot that in Test cricket if your best ball gets hit, don’t go away from bowling your best ball.
“If England dance down outside off and whip it through mid-wicket, don’t stop bowling that ball. But England’s attacking instincts led to Australia suffering from amnesia.”
Atherton said regardless of the outcome of the Test – and Australia retaining the Ashes – England’s Bazball approach has delivered a truly thrilling contest and the country has a team of which they can be proud.
Atherton wrote: “There are those who will point to the missed opportunities at Edgbaston, especially, which mean the Ashes remain in Australia’s grasp for another 2½ years. Instead of that lingering regret being the strongest reaction, think first where England were two winters ago in Hobart, a shell of a side that played with no conviction or belief.
“The transformation since has been remarkable and even though “Bazball” will not get its affirmation with an Ashes win, the country has a team of which to be proud.”
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